RANGERS fans last night urged Charles Green to grant their wish – to start the new season in the Third Division.

RANGERS fans last night urged Charles Green to grant their wish – to start the new season in the Third Division.

The Ibrox club were booted out of the SPL yesterday and will now apply for membership to the SFL.

Lower-league sides will meet at Hampden next Thursday to vote on proposals which would allow Gers direct entry into the First Division.

That would suit the SPL chairman who voted against the newco yesterday – because their TV deal depends on Rangers being back in the top flight for 2013/14 – but supporters groups want to start on the bottom tier.

Andy Kerr, from the Rangers Supporters Assembly, insists Ibrox punters are keen to be put into the Third Division so they can fight their way back to the top withtheir integrity rediscovered.

He told Record Sport: “The SPL clubs have clearly listened to their own supporters on the matter. It’s time for Mr Green to do the same.

“The vast majority of Rangers fans now want to start again in the Third Division. We don’t want allegations from clubs saying we’ve tried to weave our way back in or bully people.

“We don’t want to ‘buy’ our way into a league and don’t want a manipulated situation. We just want to get back to playing football again.

“The Rangers fans want to be able to hold our heads up and fight our way back through the leagues. It’s important to us that we do it on our own merits from the bottom tier. That’s our unequivocal position – it isn’t tactics on our part.”

The Rangers Supporters Trust are also backing the Third Division – and believe some clubs have just signed their own “death warrants”.

Mark Dingwall, head of the Trust, said: “This is the end of Scottish football as we know it and some of these clubs have just signed death warrants.

SEVERE

“Just look at the balance sheets for some of the SPL teams. They will be in severe trouble now with their bank managers.

“Some are in big trouble and sadly this will come back to haunt them. I believe without Rangers the figures don’t add up and the game won’t be the same. I can assure you these clubs will be going into liquidation by Christmas. It is Armageddon for Scottish football.

“We have sinned as a club but we have been punished and we believe what has happened will have major implications on the game. The Third Division is what the vast majority of fans want now. I’m no different.

“That would give us the time to rebuild and people can’t say we have been given any preferential treatment.

“The SPL can cope with the fallout as this is going to be disastrous.”